Sid Griffin

BIO:
Sid Griffin is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader. He led The Long Ryders in the 1980s, founded The Coal Porters in the 1990s, has recorded several solo albums. He's also written books about Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons and bluegrass music.

He was the leader of The Long Ryders, a Paisly Underground band, that was second to The Replacements in the US and The Smiths in Europe. While often called an alt country band, the group's guitar sound was influenced by The Byrds, Gram Parsons, Buffalo Springfield, and The Flying Burrito Brothers and had a harder edged from Sid's roots in punk music.

After The Long Ryders disbanded, Sid formed The Coal Porters. Initialed rooted in the 60's alt country sound, the group has evolved with Sid as he moved to London and recruited new players. The Coal Porters are now an exciting and dynamic bluesgrass combo with Sid on vocals, mandolin, harmonica and autoharp.

The Trick Is To Breathe is Sid Griffin's first solo album in a decade. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee at the home studio of Thomm Lutz in February 2014 it was a joyous, easy and (almost) carefree session, the entire album completed in four days.

"Before Christmas I had sent some Nashville friends acoustic demos of my songs and of my new arrangement of a version of The Youngbloods' great Get Together. These men and women had learned the songs off my demos and most of the songs we recorded were second takes...in fact these players are so accomplished I don't think any track was recorded in more than four takes," recalls Griffin.

After recording in the UK for most of the past two decades it Sid decided to do everything differently from his last solo album, As Certain As Sunrise. "I recorded in the USA instead of Europe, I did not engineer, co-produce, or mix the album, on a few tracks I only sang, I put myself entirely in the hands of others, I did not use any of the Coal Porters' vast musical talents, I primarily used musicians I had not met before the sessions and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Without question it was time for a change, time to shake things up."

The Trick Is To Breathe announces Sid Griffin is back on the world stage as a solo artist, globe-trotting troubadour and singer-songwriter. "It's a great record, it really is, my best songs ever and you can play them with a group behind you as I did in Nashville or they can be performed by me solo.

Sid's Gear

Sid uses a Pickboy Ceramic 1.00mm pick because it "never leaves your hand due to perspiration, is balanced perfectly and the THWACK it makes against the string itself never dominates the sound."
Pick:Ceramic 1.00mm